PSOE and Sumar reach a government agreement in Spain: public housing and reduction of working hours, among their proposals  

PM and Secretary General of the Socialist Party Pedro Sánchez and Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz presented their coalition pact.
 

This Tuesday, October 24, the leaders of the PSOE and Sumar parties unveiled their plan to form the Spanish Executive power.

"Today @PSOE and @sumar signed a government agreement with the intention of consolidating these four years of progressive policies for the majority," Sánchez expressed on Twitter/X.

The announcement made at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid included numerous social policies, such as reducing weekly working hours from 40 to 37.5 hours.

Diaz shared on the same social network: "(In) this legislature we are going to tackle the anomalies that our labor system has. We must address lay-offs to reverse the cost-reduction policies of the PP and reduce the daily working day to add lifetime".

Access to housing is an important aspect of their plan. "Fifty percent of people living in rented housing are at risk of poverty," said Diaz based on official data from last year. The coalition seeks to regulate rents, expanding the supply of public housing to 20% and exercising controls over investment funds.

Climate objectives also made it onto the agenda. One of the proposals for decarbonization involves reducing flights within the country where there is an alternative train option of up to two and a half hours, with the exception of international routes. In addition, the leaders discussed revising the Climate Change Law to set more ambitious targets.

From the fiscal angle, Sánchez and Díaz proposed charging large companies a 15% corporate tax on their accounting results to increase state revenue.

With this pact, Pedro Sánchez advances towards a possible new investiture and opens the door to negotiations with pro-independence parties, particularly those of Catalonia.

On this aspect, the opposition leader and president of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijoó, stated during the presentation of the Awards for Commitment to Equality in the Rural Environment 2023 that "everything that is going to happen in Spain will not be decided by the acting president, the acting vice-president or the parties that are in government, but by parties that do not even believe in Spain".

November 27 is the deadline to define the investiture. Otherwise, general elections will be called for January 14.

Author: Marina Vanni